Entrepreneurship Interview

Exploring glories of splendid personalities

Q.1 Define Love in three words.
A. Actually, I believe, love is something which cannot be defined! Still, let me try. Love for me is the ‘most powerful thing‘ on the planet.

Q.2 Being an Entrepreneur, Writer and Speaker, how has the journey been so far?
A. The journey so far has been nothing less than excitingly adventurous. It was a mix of all the wonderful and some not-so-wonderful experiences. But it surely was immensely enriching.

Q.3 To begin the Writeropedia Author Marathon Interview, we would like you to Introduce your book ‘The Stupid Somebody’ to our readers.
A. The Stupid Somebody is an inspiring book. The book is about Rohit, a boy from a small town Mhow in India who stammers while speaking. He has a dream of becoming a world-class motivational-speaker one day.
His love, Sherly is getting married in three days when she finds out about an incomplete Novel Rohit wrote.

In short its a story of love, life and dreams.

Q.4 Every writer remembers a book that opens a new world to them; which one is yours?
A. Umm.. When I was in school, there always were non-fiction books around me. That time it was ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie. In college, it was ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho.

Q.5 ‘The Stupid Somebody’ has been well-accepted by the readers; what made you pen down this brilliant theme in the first place?
A. Sometimes destiny chooses you to do something. I always had this story in my mind which I used to think- why has no one ever tried to give this world a story on this topic. And now when I get feedbacks, all of them mostly say, they could relate to the story so well. I knew it would. And on the contrary none of the reviews ever say that they have read or seen a story like this before. See, this world is full of stories, and most of them are already told. So finding a story which excites the readers giving them some different perspectives yet feeling fresh is a tough task to do. I already had one such tale in my mind. And the urge to jot it down only grew with time.

Q.6. How does the young author, Rohit Dawesar, spend his leisure hours?
A. You mean apart from reading? By watching any good movie (going by the reviews) of any language, Indian web series or Hollywood TV series. Sometimes I like to sketch too.

Q.7. How long it took you to complete ‘The Stupid Somebody‘ and what has been the major inspiration for you throughout the journey of writing this book?
A. It took me about 8-10 months to pen the story down to the point where I was convinced enough that it is ready to go out to the world. My inspiration on the way was, one- I was loving to feel all the emotions which I was experiencing writing the book. I cried with Rohit and Sherly, laughed with Harry, Birju and felt spiritual with the mystery man, once again. Two- I wanted the world to read this story as soon as possible.

Q.8 Tell us about the publishing journey? What mode did you choose and why?
A. Publishing journey for me was simple. Since I wanted this book to be out soon, I chose self-publishing. I knew a renowned publisher would take time as I was a first-time author. And I was clear that I need only an already well-established publishing house to take my book since they have the reach and resources to make the book reach places it must definitely reach. So I learnt all ins and outs of the industry. And finally decided to go with self-publishing the book.

Q.9. If you could walk the red carpet one day, how would you want the world to recognize your effort?
A. As a good Storyteller. As the one whose stories make them go through some amazing feelings and which inspire them to become good human beings.

Q.10. Most of the students complain that their parents do not allow them to follow their dreams because of the risks involved. What’s your take on it?
A. They are in a way right, and in a way wrong. Following any of them, both extremes are wrong. One must take well-calculated risks. Because one never gets back the time spent. So, one must listen to what their parents have to say, do a thorough research, and on the same hand look at their dreams and aspirations with an optimistic view. The risk is an unwanted guest one has to keep in mind when going for their dreams. As there’s a line in my book- This world is full of want-to-be-successful people, because they never dream and do what’s required for it. Don’t be one of them throughout your life.

Q.11 What would be the best life per you?
A. Best life.. Umm.. Where one is able to do what he/she loves doing the most.

Q.12 Which writing field excites you most and why?
A. That I would be finding out myself when once I have written minimum ten books of the different genre.

Q.13 Today’s modern Authors fails badly at marketing their book to the world but you have made commendable efforts with The Stupid Somebody, any four takeaways for them?
A. Observe, learn, apply, analyse the results. Don’t hesitate to do something which is unconventional. It always grabs attention. I have also written a blog post on a topic that could help, ‘How to write an Indian bestselling novel (from being a complete non-writer) in less than a year’. It is available on my website – www.rohitdawesar.com.

Q.14 What have you got in store for the readers next? Would you like to tell your fans what they should be looking forward to?
A. My mind is juggling a lot of things. Next novel, writing and directing a web series or to open a publishing house to help budding writers. Let’s see which one of the three excites me more or maybe I take up all three of them together. But as for my next novel, I have two stories in my mind. One is the second instalment of the ‘Stupid’ series. It is not going to be a sequel to TSS though. Second is, I daily get messages from my readers asking me to post the next episode to one of my favourite short stories of Rishi and Mishika. I am also thinking to convert that to a novel. It would be an out and out romantic story. Also, let’s see if any other story excites me more before I start writing again.

Q.15 Any take on Writeropedia website and platform?
A. I always believe- this world needs good stories, and it’s a good thing that you are giving a platform to budding authors. Keep the good work going.